The present invention relates to image processing that is mainly used in a digital laboratory system, and more particularly to an image processing method capable of outputting images effectively by improving the throughput of the system.
Most of the images recorded on photographic films (which are hereinafter referred to as “films”) such as negatives, reversals, and the like are conventionally printed onto light-sensitive materials (photographic papers) by a technique generally called “direct exposure” in which the image recorded on a film is projected onto the light-sensitive material for areal exposure (one spot exposure).
In contrast, recently, a printing apparatus which makes use of digital exposure, that is, a digital laboratory system has been commercialized. In this digital laboratory system, the image recorded on a film is read photoelectrically and converted into digital signals, which are subjected to various kinds of image processing to produce recording image data; and a light-sensitive material is exposed by scanning with recording light modulated in accordance with the image data to thereby record an image (latent image) on the light-sensitive material, and a (finished) print on which the image is recorded is reproduced.
The digital laboratory system having these features is composed of the following three basic components; a scanner (image reading apparatus) which applies reading light onto a film and reads the light projected therefrom to thereby photoelectronically read the image recorded on the film; an image processing apparatus which performs predetermined image processing to the image data read with the scanner to obtain image data, that is, exposure conditions for recording the image; a printer (image recording apparatus) which scan exposes a light-sensitive material with, for example, a light beam in accordance with the image data supplied from the image processing apparatus and records a latent image; and a processor (developing apparatus) which subjects the light-sensitive material having been exposed by the printer to development processing and creates a (finished) print on which the image is reproduced.
According to the digital laboratory system, a print of high quality that cannot be obtained by conventional direct exposure can be obtained because image processing can be appropriately performed by processing image data. Moreover, the digital laboratory system can output, as a print, not only the image recorded on a film but also an image recorded by a digital camera, and the like and an image (image data) obtained through the Internet, and so on. Further, since the digital laboratory system processes an image as digital image data, it can not only output the image as a photographic print but also output the image data to a recording medium such as a CD-R as an image file.
The digital laboratory system performs prescan for roughly reading an image recorded on a film, for example, the state of the image; and then performs fine scan for reading the image at a high resolution to output the image after image reading conditions, and the like are set using the image data obtained in the prescan (prescan data). Both image data is stored in predetermined memories. Further, image processing conditions for obtaining output image data are set by analyzing the resultant image data (image analysis).
In an ordinary print creation, a verification is performed to confirm an image, and to adjust an image (image processing conditions) when necessary in order to output a print on which an appropriate image is reproduced. The digital laboratory system performs the verification by creating a finished-state anticipating image (image to be verified), which has been subjected to image processing under set image processing conditions, by using prescan data or fine scan data, and displaying the finished-state anticipating image on a display unit. Further, when the image to be verified that is displayed on the display unit is not in an appropriately finished state, the color and the density of the image is adjusted, that is, the image processing conditions are adjusted.
When it is determined that the image is appropriate (the verification is acceptable), the operator instructs an output instruction for the image. With this operation, fine scan image data (fine scan data) is read out from the memory, an image processing operation is started to carry out image processing of the fine scan data depending on the determined image processing condition. After the image processing is finished, the image data is output to a printer as an output image data and further is stored into the recording medium such as the CD-R and the like as an image file.
That is, the conventional digital laboratory system starts the image processing operation of the fine scan data (image data to be output) after the verification is finished, a problem arises in that a processing efficiency is insufficient.